Another Country Festival Cancels As Ticket Sales Struggle

Another country music festival has been cancelled just weeks out from the event taking place. Coastal Country Music Fest, due to occur on Saturday, 22 July, will no longer be happening following low ticket sales, organiser Venue 114 announced on social media on Thursday.

Venue 114, home to Bokarina, Sunshine Coast’s music scene, has recently hosted the likes of The Jungle Giants and Spacey Jane and will host other upcoming events, such as Conscious Life Wellness Day, Australian Wearable Art Festival, DMA’s on their How Many Dreams Australian tour, and more.

“Unfortunately, we have had to make the difficult decision to cancel Coastal Country Music Fest 2023 on Saturday, 22 July, due to low ticket sales,” Venue 114 stated on Facebook this week. The line-up boasted local country music heroes Melanie Dyer, Caitlyn Shadbolt, Andrew Swift, Liam Brew and Pete Cullen.

“We thank all the patrons who purchased tickets for their support of the event, and refunds have been issued today,” the statement continued. “Thank you to Melanie Dyer, Andrew Swift, Caitlyn Shadbolt, Liam Brew and Pete Cullen & The Hurt for jumping on board and trying to get this event off the ground for the Sunshine Coast community – we really hope to be able to try again one day.

“We look forward to welcoming you to Venue 114 for future events.”

The Coastal Country Music Fest would have occurred from 3 pm until 11 pm on Saturday, 22 July. Tickets were $65 plus booking fees, and it would have been the first-ever Coastal Country Music Fest to the region of the Sunshine Coast.

Last month, Let’s Wing It Country Music Festival was cancelled due to poor ticket sales just days before the event took place. 

Organisers Dusty Edwards and Phill Doring decided to postpone the event, revealing that only 500 tickets were sold, far below the 3200 required to break even.

“People are just waiting to buy their tickets, and, in all honesty, we can’t walk into a $300,000 festival if we can’t see how we’re gonna cover it,” Edwards told the Newcastle Herald. 

“We can’t walk into a show like that hoping on walk-ins," he continued. “Slow pre-sales have been problematic for various parts of the live music industry since the pandemic, which a large number of punters waiting until the last minute to purchase tickets.”

Scheduled for June 10-11, the jam-packed two-day festival was set to feature Brooke McClymont and Adam Eckersley, Fanny Lumsden, Catherine Britt, Andrew Swift, Matt Cornell, The Bushwackers, Raechel Whitchurch, Melody Moko, Gretta Ziller, Rory Phillips, Piper Butcher and more.